Niki Lauda’s health has been a major concern in the past week, with the Mercedes F1 Chairman being forced to move into a Vienna hospital after the ‘summer flu’ that he suffered during his summer vacation in Ibiza.
Lauda had to undergo a lung transplant in Vienna and was forced into an artificial coma in order to recuperate from the transplant.
The F1 fraternity was taken aback by the news of the ‘coma’ and wishes started to pour in for the F1 legend.
There is good news coming in from Vienna now, as the Austrian media have reported that Niki Lauda is out of the artificial coma(12 pm Austrian time).
Lauda is now conscious and has been speaking to his family.
The doctors have revealed that Lauda’s condition wasn’t good on Wednesday and a donor was needed urgently.
The donor was then found in Germany and he was flown in from Germany to Vienna.
The doctor revealed some horrific conditions that Lauda had to go though before, during and after the transplant.
“The conditions have been difficult. At the same time, one has to say that the condition was extremely critical. You have to imagine that in the last seven days, Mr. Lauda has only been kept alive by a pump – a heart-lung machine. At the same time, however, was fully conscious. This is a very modern way of treating patients in such a difficult phase. In this situation, when there is really no other treatment alternative, life expectancy without a transplant is limited to days or a few weeks” doctor Klepetko said as reported by the Austrian Media
The road to recovery starts now as Lauda will need a lot of physiotherapy in order to get the drugs out of his system.
But the good news is that Lauda is completely out of danger now and should be back to full fitness in the next few weeks.
